Author: admin

Testing times

Looking at life now, there’s this astounding picture of a globe filled with billions of people each, potentially, able to communicate with all others. While modern technology’s clearly not without its challenges, the opportunities it’s brought for creating a genuinely global conversation about our existence are amazing to consider.

But then, it’s not like we’d mastered things before those floodgates opened: society clearly still had more than a few threads we’d not quite figured out what to do with (see Notes One). In the West, we may’ve had the ‘essentials’ of these social systems – democratic government; economic theories; health, welfare and education; the public voices of media and culture – but technology’s now testing all that to the limit.

Many issues hadn’t been resolved: dealing with differing beliefs and values; attitudes towards such differences; and the conflicted legacy of our shared histories. It takes great courage and honesty to address these things – to admit mistakes or other ways of approaching life – because it presumably threatens our sense of self and our justifications to do so.

Really, with technology, it seems that whatever stage society had got to at that point was simply dialled up. As if we’d had some time to sort things out, then this whole other system amplified it all and began transmitting these competing frequencies at the same time (Notes Two). What were once quite contained personal, social or national conversations suddenly became incredibly complex and public.

It hardly seems surprising that individuals as much as societies are going to be tested by such a thing happening. Having everything thrown open into an environment of almost complete transparency was always going to be confronting: there’s no place for people or organisations to hide, so having that new demand for accountability is going to expose whatever moral, ethical or social standards we did or didn’t have figured out.

Then there’s how well we’re able to convey our true meaning in these forms, and how open we are to receiving possibly contradictory messages in return. It’s beautiful to think we might be able to share our thoughts, values and experiences with others and reach mutual understanding of our points of view, what matters to us, and our dreams for the future. But it’s not easy in practice.

It just seems we have an awful lot of work to do, and an awful lot to distract us as we attempt it. Technology may place tools for connection and information at our disposal; but also knows exactly how to tempt us with every possible amusement, novelty and vice. Even if we cut through that and focus our attention, there’s then the challenge of understanding, discernment, and relating our ideas to life as it stands (Notes Three).

And it all matters: it’s the complex relationships between people and the planet that sustains us. It’s not something we can defer; all this has to be taken in hand and resolved, hopefully quickly and thoroughly, if we’re to create a world that works for everyone.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Complexity of life
Note 1: Created a system we seek to escape?
Note 2: Value in visible impacts
Note 2: The potential of technology
Note 3: Responsibility in shaping this reality
Note 3: Entertaining ideas & the matter of truth
Note 3: Seeing, knowing and loving

Looking in quite a different light at the project of society, Plato & “The Republic” considered principles that underpin our common existence.

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Entertaining ideas & the matter of truth

Living in times where facts are frequently drawn into question, the sense of what’s truthful as opposed to simply compelling or entertaining seems to be under quite considerable pressure. When all is said and done, does it matter what we think?

It’s fairly commonplace to hear that it doesn’t, that culture’s all just stories and what we choose to absorb is a personal prerogative. And that’s the thing: it’s true we can think whatever we choose (see Note One). But surely the question of whether it matters is slightly different, and rather more difficult to answer.

Reality – the past or present – must have a truth to it, however complex and interwoven it all might be. There are clearly almost countless perspectives, interpretations, threads or trends we might choose to prioritise as we look at events from different angles, in the light of how they affect or were affected by different individuals. It’s not really a straightforward narrative, an easy story to tell.

In many ways, time’s this quite thrilling convergence of people, ideas and places as ‘whatever life is’ works itself out. Faced with that, choosing any single storyline is going to offer partial truth at best; far less than the coherent, multifaceted representation that would be ‘truth’. So holding any narrative up against reality can easily lead to pointing out all the things that aren’t being said or acknowledged.

Beyond that, does it matter if we entertain notions of Brad Pitt and Wonder Woman fighting in WW2? Does this re-working or re-casting of history help or hinder us in grasping the truth of things? Might having such pictures in our minds desensitise us to the reality of countless ‘more ordinary’ souls deliberately laying down their lives for their values? (Notes Two)

And, with the representation of modern society, are stories we’re being told and their inferred meanings encouraging us to understand, integrate and move forward? Or are they more often perpetuating stereotypes; feeding on prejudice or insecurity? It’s surely important to ask whether the ideas we’re shown around appearance, race, gender, poverty and so forth are fair or particularly helpful in navigating life (Notes Three).

If we were to view culture as a reflection of reality – a map of sorts for understanding the world we all live within – does the truth of it matter, or can that be swept away and replaced with some other story if we’d rather? Is culture now more about escapism and light relief than some sense of having a shared narrative, common interpretation of meaning, and moral evaluation of social or personal worth (Note Four)?

Modern living seems to value neutrality more: that truth or meaning comes from our interactions, our responses, to all that’s freely on offer. Our ability to think the right thoughts about cultural and social realities, past or present, might then be what truly matters (Note Five). Whether we’re looking at partial truths or re-written ones, keeping in mind how anything relates to reality could be the more important question.

Notes and References:

Note 1: What are we thinking?
Note 2: Meaning in culture
Note 2: History’s role in modern culture
Note 3: Masks we all wear
Note 3: Beauty in unexpected places
Note 4: Plato & “The Republic”
Note 5: What is real?

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Able to see what matters?

With society, we need to know what’s important: paths taken, decisions made, values put at the forefront, and ways life’s evolved. It’s a lot of information. There’s history in all its grand arcs, little moments and general trends. There’s knowledge of the world, through the sciences; knowledge itself in maths, reasoning or philosophy; then culture, with all its expressions of experience and emotion.

As the volume of information being created increases, it may be tempting to forget all that and focus on what’s presenting itself to us now (see Note One). In the overwhelming chatter of a few billion people talking at once – possibly pursuing worthwhile and important things – how can we be sure of what matters?

Modern life’s essentially this massive conversation of competing agendas. On global as much as social levels, many things really do matter: how we treat others; impacts our actions are having; ideas we’re living by; and the standards being tolerated, encouraged or fuelled. Now we’re able to have a fairly open conversation, it’s surely absolutely right that many of those problems, imperfections and injustices get brought to the fore.

But what then? We cannot change the past. While the paths of Western civilisation are without doubt highly problematic, they’ve brought the scientific, technical and economic activities that now shape the globe in terms of communication, trade, international relations, exploitation, waste, and countless other terribly significant human and natural consequences (Note Two).

An arguably quite careless pursuit of wealth and power has created this global web of unequal relationships and questionable justifications that may take a while to unpick and even out (if that’s even permissible). Generations have now been guided, conditioned and informed by this way of thinking and acting: stories we’ve been told about our interests, acceptable ways of being, and expectations to have of life.

People generally seem to accept what’s handed down, adopting something like that way of thinking and stepping into established social and economic patterns. So, year on year, this is slipping into how we are as people, rippling out into the wider national and international worlds we’re all operating within (Note Three).

Identities are shaped by ideas we receive and the meaning with which they’re imparted. So are the full heritage of the past, the lifetimes of effort behind vast leaps of recent centuries, and the responsibilities of power all being conveyed? Or do we tend to focus on conclusions, outcomes and their current applications?

The human legacy is weighty. Faced with that, deciding to externalise knowledge and learn instead how to access it appears logical. Otherwise, you’d either have to spend time learning everything or trust someone to offer a manageable yet truthful overview. Balance is challenging to achieve; hence why education might tie itself in knots.

Ultimately, the past places in our hands stunning capacities alongside considerable difficulties; and, situations shifting fast, it may be tempting to push aside much of that and forge onward (Notes Four). But would doing so be running some serious risks?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Technology & the lack of constraint
Note 2: At what cost, for humans & for nature
Note 3: The conversation of society
Note 4: Can we reinvigorate how we’re living?
Note 4: Dealing with imperfection

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Concerns over how we’re living

Thinking about life, society, and what it means to be human is essentially all my writing here is about – trying to understand what’s going on, how we got here, and what might matter most going forward.

And, in that, it’s probably clear to say there’s cause for concern (see Notes One). It often seems to me that we’re living within systems we might not fully understand – things like economics, technology, social structures, culture and media realities – and generally being asked to defer to others, to experts, in order to form our ideas and make our decisions.

Which in many ways is understandable: life has been developing so quickly in almost every direction, creating these fields of specialisation that are far beyond the thorough comprehension of ‘most people’. In light of that, it’s fairly obvious the fullest level of understanding rests in the hands of those working in each particular field.

But then there’s the question of to what extent that fragmented understanding creates a state of dependency and necessitates a large degree of trust. Outside all those isolated pockets of intelligence, is there a truly robust overview capable of holding it all in place?

It seems you either need individuals capable of containing that ever-growing wealth of understanding within a workable yet flexible ‘worldview’, or an extremely trustworthy institution able and willing to offer the same. The level to which education, culture and the media can or do offer those things is a challenge to answer.

I mean, how are we supposed to judge things? If every avenue of human endeavour is hurtling at full speed in its own direction with only market forces or relatively slow-moving government regulation to keep it in check, how are we ever to evaluate each course of action as well as the overall picture being created?

It may be reasonably ‘natural’ then that we conceive of our role as one of filtering the information we’re presented and forming some sort of logical assessment of our choices and where we stand. Which clearly raises issues of trust (in others, information and the agendas of those offering it), and draws into focus our capacity for discernment and independence.

Within that, do we become fairly passive ‘consumers’ who entrust themselves to the ultimate wisdom of modern society? Is there more to life than that? Is it possible for humanity to rise above such fragmentation and begin to chart a potentially wiser course? We might resign ourselves to juggling the competing demands of life and generally going with the flow, but who knows where that might lead (Notes Two).

None of these are easy questions, but they’re important ones (Notes Three). As in many of the posts mentioned below, we surely are often placing our trust and our future in the hands of business or the willingness of others to regulate it. If we hope for a future that works from a human perspective, it may be we need to take a different role in bringing that about.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Economy & Humanity
Note 1: The web and the wider world
Note 1: Human nature and community life
Note 1: Nature speaks in many ways, do we listen?
Note 1: Modern media and complex realities
Note 2: What we bring to life
Note 2: Right to question and decide
Note 2: Complexity of life
Note 3: Responsibility in shaping this reality
Note 3: The need for discernment
Note 3: Can we reinvigorate how we’re living?

The idea of what it takes to make changes, and forms that’s taking in our times, were explored a little in Patience with the pace of change.

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Beauty in unexpected places

Speaking from personal experience, the greatest humanity – moments of genuine consideration, awareness, concern, joy or presence – can often appear in most unexpected places.

I’m thinking of times people who are generally disparaged, misrepresented or undervalued by society and its cultural or economic systems have displayed qualities that are often quite lacking within society as a whole; things like kindness, courtesy, empathy, humour, consideration for the experiences and feelings of another.

Times when you realise someone else has noticed you and your situation, and chosen to reach out with words or gestures of humanity rather than cold indifference. To me, such moments are truly beautiful – as if something were suddenly shining through that you just weren’t expecting to see there (see Notes One). As when a flower emerges, somehow, within an expanse of concrete; showing life can find a way.

And, thinking about that, I realise judgement must also fall on me for not having expected it: that I was looking at life and prejudging in some way where such beauty or character would reside. Apparently, the human mind likes to create patterns, stereotypes, to understand and navigate its environment. This sense of whether we should expect the best or the worst that can, quite clearly, drift into labelling rather than looking.

It’s the stuff of culture, I suppose, that codifying of social realities (Notes Two); all the ways we look for trends, often judging people and simplifying the complexity of their existence as we do so. The degree to which our desire to reduce life to more manageable labels may ‘help’ us in some ways but hinder us in others seems worthwhile getting to grips with: at what point are we reinforcing or anticipating certain things?

I can see that the mind might well employ itself by creating, drawing upon or falling back on such ‘codes’ in order to navigate life successfully, safely, skilfully – to take advantage of opportunities while avoiding unnecessary risks. Maybe, in the past, smaller communities could generate such a code without it being too problematic? Culture can be seen as having helped create social cohesion through common narratives.

But now life’s so wonderfully merged, blended and combined, can we ever reach ‘labels’ that aren’t causing problems? I’d have thought it almost impossible to develop any code that might match the richness of human diversity and experience; and that any such attempt would likely be offensive to many while also not giving much true insight into the complexities of life or its potential (Notes Three).

Which in a way brings me back to my point: that, beyond the surface, there’s so much more to people than we give credit for. Surely we never really know what stands before us unless we take the time to. There’s both beauty and ugliness in our midst, but knowing one from the other isn’t as easy as it might appear and mistaking the two could cause further problems

Finding our way – appreciating what’s right before our eyes – is an interesting challenge.

Notes and References:

Note 1: The human spirit
Note 1: Worthless, or priceless?
Note 2: Culture, art & human activity
Note 2: Masks we all wear
Note 3: The worth of each life
Note 3: Seeing, knowing and loving

On a slightly separate note, “The Spirit of Community” explores attitudes that might help bind us together better; as did Community as an answer.

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Relating to one another

Conceivably, we could relate ourselves to any other person in life. We might attempt to do so genetically or historically through delving into a family tree; socially or economically through some sort of comparison of our relative status, power or security; or maybe more personally through exploring common interests or social ties.

It’s one way of looking at what we’re doing ‘all the time’: relating to people, finding meaning, establishing a sense of what we can offer each other, maybe forming partnerships or contracts. All the ways we might forge connections for personal, emotional, social, professional or economic advantage. Life could be viewed as those webs of relationship, overlaying and intersecting in various ways.

Presumably it’s quite a ‘valuable’ way of looking at life, as otherwise industries wouldn’t invest such resources into mapping how it’s all playing out online: how social connections influence choices; who has most power and how they might use it to affect the decisions of others; what all this says about us or human nature more generally.

Life ‘is’ relationship, in a way. It’s where we express ourselves, find recognition and hopefully belonging; shaping the lives we lead and paths we take. In so many ways we’re giving life social meaning through what we engage with, the priorities we act upon, and how we’re rubbing shoulders with one another each day.

Maybe that idea of human relationships has ‘always’ come down to notions of status, power and influence? It’s certainly one way of seeing people: focusing on specific measures of social, personal or economic potential, and evaluating where we stand in relation to that. Viewing others strategically in terms of your own ends or expectations has never sat comfortably with my views on life, but I see it’s a reality in many ways.

Beyond that though, it is of course true that we all stand in relationship to one another. We might tug at the threads in different ways to understand ‘how’ exactly, but in almost any avenue of life we’d likely be able to establish some sense of our relative positions. In terms of politics, consumer choices, cultural preferences, personal priorities, lifestyle, we could map out where any two people stand.

It’s interesting, as clearly people can be ‘evaluated’ in terms of interests and patterns of behaviour. It’s the stuff of data profiling, workplace personality assessments, online dating algorithms, and so on. It’s one way of approaching self-development: to chart how your life looks right now and where you’d ideally like to make changes. We ‘can’ be mapped, to a fairly large extent.

As is probably clear from my writing, it’s not how I choose to look at life (see Notes One); but I acknowledge it might offer a certain level of insight. From my perspective, I see it as more insightful to think in terms of agency: that we might take hold of ourselves in new ways to creatively embody the values that matter most to us within those social, ecological or economic relationships.

Notes and References:

Note 1: What we bring to life
Note 1: Worthless, or priceless?
Note 1: How we feel about society
Note 1: Having boundaries
Note 1: The creativity of living

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Plato & “The Republic”

Having never formally studied philosophy I’m not sure what you’re ‘supposed’ to say about it, but Plato clearly raised intriguing questions around life, how best to go about living it, and what it might all mean for society.

“The Republic” is undeniably a very different way of looking at the social structure: governing people out of philosophical wisdom rather than purely individual interests. But having talked before of how thought shapes our lives, informing social realities as much as our responses to them (see Notes One), it’s interesting to contemplate these at-times confronting notions of how we could live.

In terms of education, Plato viewed it as having great importance for the ideas, attitudes and qualities making their way into society through the development of individuals toward becoming responsible citizens. He argued that, early impressions leaving a permanent mark, society should be very careful of what’s imparted to young people through education and culture if flaws were to be corrected rather than enhanced.

“It is in education that disorder can most easily creep in unobserved… because it gradually makes itself at home and quietly undermines morals and manners; from them it issues with greater force and invades business dealings generally, and then… spreads into the laws and constitution with complete lack of restraint, until it has upset the whole of private and public life.”

Talking at the level of ideals, it’s a discussion that plunges into many weighty realities around the role of parents, leaders and educators; making connections and suggesting courses of action that seem quite alien to the modern mind. But ideas of social order, personal development, citizenship, and how good education might help heal society are still important and timely concerns (Note Two).

And while Plato’s arguments around culture would likely now be characterised as censorship or propaganda (shaping stories to represent socially valuable qualities), this seems to arise out of concern for the strong influence cultural ideas can have on our feelings about life. His aim being the cultivation of ideals and attitudes (courage, respect, self-control) that might ultimately serve us and society well (Notes Three).

Which is interesting, this whole sense of trying to imagine a society that serves both individual and collective interests. The extent to which we act out of personal self-interest or concern for common social realities must be this age-old battle of any human community (Notes Four): “Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and fragmented, or anything better than cohesion and unity … And is not cohesion the result of the common feelings of pleasure and pain which you get when all members of a society are glad or sorry at the same successes and failures?”

Obviously, modern society’s taken different paths from many of these ‘suggestions’, but the question of what’s best and how well society is holding together, serving us all in the long run, or helping eradicate rather than create problems isn’t seeming so entirely different from two and half thousand years ago.

Notes and References:

“The Republic” by Plato, (Penguin Classics, London), 2007 (originally around 375 BC)

Note 1: What if it all means something?
Note 1: What is real?
Note 2: Ideas around education & responsibility
Note 3: Meaning in culture
Note 3: Dystopia as a powerful ideal
Note 4: Human nature and community life
Note 4: People, rules & social cohesion

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Having boundaries

Lately I’ve been picking in a few different ways at the idea of boundaries – how they define us or allow us to express our choices; how they offer possibilities for growth through the potentially powerful limitation of options (see Notes One). It’s just a thought really, this concept of an edge where ‘we’ meet ‘the world’ and decide what we want to happen there.

On one level, it’s a question of identity: what makes one entity different from another. ‘Identity’ possibly coming down to our choices and the rules we live by (whether consciously chosen, inherited, or some blend of the two); this idea of a regulatory presence governing a space and bringing to it a sense of definition.

And when it comes to definition, I suppose we need an idea of our options and what they might ‘mean’ socially; a sort of acclimatisation to the human world of meaning. It’s clearly a vast world. Once we’ve tracked back historically or culturally in various directions we’re talking about a massive amount of options, interpretations and re-interpretations of what it means to be human (Notes Two).

Essentially, it seems we now live in these increasingly open and overlapping communities; often dipping from one to another to find what suits us best, allowing us to express or explore different aspects of our ‘personalities’. It’s quite a beautiful thing really, but almost inevitably risks both division and conflict.

I mean, humans tend to seek what we have in common in order to forge stable bonds through the constancy of identity and relationship. A large part of ‘society’ must be knowing where we stand and what it all means, for us and about us. Nations, historically, arising from what groups of people had in common, their shared outlooks and interests in life.

One of the beautiful challenges of modern times seems to be this free-flowing convergence of different ways of being. Challenging to the extent that it takes a strong yet flexible sense of self to not feel threatened by others making different choices. Communicating confidently yet tolerantly in a world of constant difference doesn’t seem to be coming naturally (Note Three).

It clearly ‘is’ challenging. Across the globe, in big and little ways, we’re struggling to understand one another, cope with life’s demands, and find ways to be more considerate and inclusive through our words and actions. And that’s opening doors to address our changing relationships to people, resources and infrastructure; whether we’re talking of technology or community.

Modern life’s fascinating in that we’re more connected than ever, yet local communities are struggling to ‘compete’. Community seemingly used to be this really living, vibrant reality where people connected culturally, socially, and economically. Arguably quite powerful places where life ‘happened’ as people found their roles within it (Note Four).

How our tangible communities might evolve to find their place within modern life may be confronting at times, but also an amazing opportunity to express our values by making meaningful changes to how we’re living.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Masks we all wear
Note 1: Limits having a purpose
Note 1: Codes of behaviour
Note 2: Meaning in culture
Note 2: People, rules & social cohesion
Note 3: Listening, tolerance & communication
Note 4: Community as an answer

For some different though not unrelated ideas around limits, power and modern life, there’s Pre-tech in film.

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Limits having a purpose

A garden can be said to exist by having a boundary and, within that, a single regulatory or guiding presence: some wall or line where the gardening ends and nature begins again. There’s this sense of creating a space where we have a role to play, where our actions can combine with the forces of nature to bring something else into being.

It’s a thought that’s interesting enough in terms of gardening itself – the vision we have; the tough choices we also have if we hope to realise it; ways executing our goals might involve as much death as it does life; and the alternative possibilities that must often fall away if our plans are to be successful. Nature can be a pretty powerful metaphor for understanding our agency in life (see Note One).

Beyond that, we could look more generally at how limits serve to define us. How youth holds meaning because it ends and arguably has to be used wisely. How those times we limit our options are the times something can happen, in relationships or work for example. How by saying “No” to some things, we’re saying “Yes” to others. Definition then acting almost as a doorway to growth, change, or power.

All these pinch points of the paths we take becoming the lives we lead and what matters most to us. We might question whether life has much meaning, much power, without decisions having been made (Notes Two). Whether we would be ourselves without the ways we’re different from others – our stories, wounds, insights, and all those things we express through our existence.

This sense of definition and expression can be intriguing: how any act of drawing a line creates both an identity and an opportunity to develop something further; carving out territory that can be worked over, taken in hand, or made into common ground. It might be our space, but we might also cultivate it for the benefit of others (Note Three).

Talking about gardens or individuals, the principles seem comparable. We make choices, play to strengths, tackle problems, bear fruit in some areas, and ultimately contribute to the world around us through our vigilance or oversight (Notes Four). We can develop a vision and make the best of what we have, investing time and doing what we can with our understanding, capacity and resources.

It’s a slightly obvious metaphor, but the thought of gardens only existing through being distinct from, yet related to, what surrounds them is quite fascinating. Only through boundaries do we gain control over that space and the potential to change it. Only by deciding what we want to happen can we weed out that which we don’t. Through definition, we gain the power to establish those rules.

What we make of things – what we let grow, what spills over, what we put into the world, and what all that can represent within our natural and social environments – must rest within our hands, in our response to what we find.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Gardening as therapy, the light and the dark
Note 2: Masks we all wear
Note 2: The need for discernment
Note 2: “Women who run with the wolves”
Note 3: Gardening & local environment
Note 4: Can we reinvigorate how we’re living?
Note 4: The creativity of living

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Masks we all wear

Fairly often in life we’re told to adopt roles, play the part, and craft how we appear to others. This idea of the image we’re presenting and how we wish to be seen; all those ways we might make an impression, hide our feelings or conceal our ‘imperfections’.

It reminds me of an exhibit I once went to on masks and how they’ve been used within drama, tradition or belief over the centuries to express different qualities and explore ways they play out. Essentially, looking at how this theatrical device can represent the traits valued or frowned upon by a community, using cultural conventions to reinforce prevailing standards for observers to then reflect upon.

Clearly there’s cultural and social value behind our use of masks: this sense of what’s considered important or praiseworthy; a sort of shorthand visual language for understanding society, where we stand within it, and how we might relate well to others. This drawing to ourselves – from the wealth of human experience – those things we feel most strongly about, that can represent us best in the eyes of others.

It’s this incredibly dynamic communication taking place between individuals and society: options are presented, paths we could walk, and we take our place among them (see Notes One). Like an ongoing social conversation where we’re all choosing our roles, our responses, within the overarching depiction of society and its values that is culture.

In that, do we simply choose a handful of things that define us best? Expressing who we are through what we choose to embody or align ourselves with; using how colour, form and cultural references interact to create new, personal meaning; pulling together our interests to form a sense of self. All the badges we wear or notes we strike from the options we’re offered; hopefully portraying ourselves in the best light.

By definition almost, that’s not truly “you” so much as a series of labels that suit or serve you well for now. It’s a complex mask that may, of course, help others understand us better; but at some point it’s likely to be constrictive or less than true. Masks can serve us in various ways, but never completely define us.

But life’s all about who we are, what matters to us, what we seek to bring into existence, and whether society recognises and reflects our true worth. In that picture, maybe culture’s the code we use, the options we have for finding our place (Notes Two): a reciprocal process of personal expression and social identity shaping how we relate to one another to create the daily drama of life.

Whether any mask can ever capture the richness of each one of us is another question entirely. Even if we were to choose all the ‘best’ masks from the full spectrum of available qualities, I’d still have thought that who we truly are would be a much more multifaceted reality emerging, as it were, from the changeable convergence of where those interests might meet.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Fashion, self & environment
Note 1: How many aren’t well represented?
Note 1: Romance, love & the movies
Note 2: Intrinsic worth over social identity
Note 2: What does art have to say about life?
Note 2: Missing something with modern culture?
Note 2: Culture selling us meaning

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